CMJ Music Monthly Spotlight
by Tom Mallon

Soul-shredding death metal and angular, instrumental avant-prog: Two great tastes that, well, have nothing to do with each other. The opening slot of a Cephalic Carnage bill is the last place you'd expect to find the sound of Don Caballero shaking down King Crimson while Frank Zappa holds their arms, but that's exactly where you'll find Dysrhythmia. Over four years and eight U.S. tours, the Philly trio's held their own with the heaviest bands in the land, with a minimal number of bottles thrown. "I actually expected more heckling from the crowd on this tour," guitarist Kevin Hufnagel says of the Contamination tour, a three-week jaunt with Cephalic and Mastodon put together by their new label, Philly death-metal stronghold Relapse Records. "Like, 'Where's the screaming?' (But) it's been cool, people are little more open-minded than they get credit for. I'm really amazed when some huge, scary-looking dude in an Emperor shirt will come up to me after a show and be totally into it." The band combines sounds like the afore-mentioned bands into a digestible package, a strength they've sharpened even further on their third record, Pretest. Impossible time signatures, complex changes, rumbling six-string bass and the sickest chops since Bruford and Fripp are all here, but they back up riffs that you'll actually remember in the morning. A word of warning: Don't see the words "six-string bass" and go using the P-word. "We get (Primus comparisons) a lot," Hufnagel sighs when it comes up. "We hate that."